The Other DiNozzos
by misspatchesmom
Summary: Introducing the rest of the DiNozzo family. Part of the "You Complete Me" universe.


The Other DiNozzos

 _The DiNozzos adopt a retired racing greyhound named Asher from GPA-Northern Virginia. Asher then befriends a stray cat and a stray kitten in the neighborhood. More cats and another dog make their way to the DiNozzo house, for a total of six pets._ _The Hebrew meaning of Asher is "happy" (fortunate; blessed).Fall 2022_

Ziva answered her phone, not looking at the caller ID, "Ziva DiNozzo."

"Hi, Ziva; this is Lisa with GPA-NoVA. We have several hounds coming in next week and there are two who may be a potential match for your family."

"That sounds great; what do we have to do next?" Ziva and Tony had applied to adopt a retired racing greyhound through the Northern Virginia Greyhound Pets of America affiliated organization. They had passed a preliminary phone interview, an in person interview at the adoption facilities and a home visit and paid their $325 adoption fee. Lisa and her husband Jon had worked with them from the start.

"We need to set up a meeting here at the facility for you and your family to meet the two possibilities. One is a medium build, dark brindle male, not quite two years old, and the other is a larger fawn male who is almost three years old. They will be coming in from the West Virginia area. What day would work better for you, Friday or Saturday next week?"

"Saturday for sure; what time?"

"How about 11?"

"Yes, I will put it on my calendar and let the rest of the family know. Do we need to bring anything?"

"Bring your crate for the dog. Make sure the children understand that they are to let the dogs approach them when they first meet. I hope one of these is your forever hound! See you on Saturday next week!"

Ziva put the time on her phone calendar, and then sent a text message to Tony. ' _Possible greyhound match coming in next week. We meet dog next Saturday at 1100_.'

' _Great; kids will be excited_.'

The following Saturday, Tony put the crate in the back of Ziva's van. He had to fold down the rear row of seats so they needed to take two vehicles. LJ, Rivka and Tali went with Ziva and Anthony and Beth rode with Tony in his truck. They had discussed how to act around the dogs with the kids at breakfast. Ziva would hold LJ as the family met the dogs, one at a time. The other four would sit quietly and let the animals come to them.

Tali and Rivka talked about names for their dog and LJ fell asleep in his car seat on the way to the GPA-NoVA facility. Anthony and Beth also talked about possible names for the dog in Tony's truck. The kids were excited to possibly be bringing home a greyhound today.

Tony and Ziva led the kids inside, and Lisa, Jon and several other volunteers greeted them. "We have five potential adoptions today! Let's go meet the dogs one at a time. Did you have a preference for which one to meet first?"

"The dark brindle," both Tony and Ziva responded.

"What's his name?" Tali asked.

"His racing name is Homebody Asher, but feel free to change it if you are his forever home," Jon replied. "Most of ours have names that we gave them or variations of their racing names. Each dog is unique and I sometimes feel that they name themselves when they go to a home."

The family settled in the room, Ziva reminding each of the kids to sit on the chairs and wait for the dog to come to them. Asher was brought in by Lisa.

"He is beautiful," Ziva loved the color of his coat and the white markings on his chest. Asher sniffed Tony and licked his hand. Tony slowly let the dog sniff him over and then scratched behind the dog's ears. Asher's tail wagged.

Beth tried to go over to Asher and Tony reminded her to let him come to her. She held out her hand and Asher licked it, tail wagging the whole time. He sniffed and licked each of the older four, and when he got to Ziva, Asher looked at LJ and then sniffed his hands and feet. LJ laughed and Asher rested his head on Ziva's knee. She let him sniff her and then rubbed his head.

"Good dog," she felt him lean against her as he looked into her eyes. "He is the one. He chose us. Asher is a good name for him; in Hebrew it means happy or blessed."

Tony agreed as the kids started moving over to pet Asher. He loved the attention. Lisa showed Tony and Ziva how to adjust the Martingale collar and handed Tony the leash. "Let's take him outside and see how he does."

Twenty minutes later, Ziva and Tony were completing the paperwork and getting ready to load Asher in the crate for his ride home. Ziva had put a few toys and a large dog pillow in the crate with a blanket just for the dog.

"Remember that you can call us with any questions or concerns. I think you have made a great choice." Jon shook Tony's hand and then Ziva's.

"Asher chose us!" Tony was looking forward to having a four-legged friend for the kids in the house. Asher had tested cat-friendly which was a good thing with the five cats in the neighborhood that had a tendency to show up in the DiNozzo backyard.

Asher fit right in with the family, but after the first week it was very clear that LJ and Ziva were his favorite people. If LJ was napping, Asher could usually be found sleeping in LJ's room. When LJ started stirring, Asher would go find Ziva to let her know the little boy was waking up. LJ loved Asher and when Ziva put the little boy on the floor, he would crawl over to Asher and use him as a pillow. More than once, during Asher's first months at the DiNozzo house, Ziva found the two curled up asleep on one of Asher's beds.

Tony had suggested moving a bed for Asher into LJ's room so the dog would be comfortable. Asher himself dragged a bed into Ziva's office, often curling up while she worked. He would lean on Ziva when he wanted her attention. She started taking the dog with her when she went out to walk or jog in the evening after the kids were in bed.

Tony figured out how to get Asher to spend time with him; he jangled Asher's leash and promised a walk. All of the kids played with Asher in the yard and in the house. His favorite game with Anthony was a tug of war with a six foot long squeaky snake toy.

Tony put in a dog door to the backyard for Asher about the third month he was at the house. The kids also thought the dog door was cool and often went in and out that way. The neighbors' cats were wary at first, but when Asher ignored them, they became curious and ventured into the yard. Ziva looked outside one day and Asher was lying on his bed on the deck with three cats curled up next to him!

A young calico cat started hanging around more than usual and on a Thursday when Ziva went to the Navy Yard to work on site, she came home to Asher and the cat sleeping inside on the bed in LJ's room. Tony and Tali asked around the neighborhood, but no one knew where the cat lived. After about a month of the cat pretty much living in the DiNozzo house, the family adopted her.

Callie and Asher were best buddies and both hung around Ziva and LJ, but Callie picked Tony as her person. She would often wait for him to come home by the front windows. She followed him to his office and outside in the yard. If Ziva let her into the bedroom, she would sleep on Tony's pillow.

Callie's favorite pastime was sleeping curled up with Asher. As the weather turned colder, both animals would sleep in the sun streaming in the house windows, and move with the sun during the day. LJ was starting to walk and Asher would stand still and let LJ put a hand on his back. He would then move slowly as LJ took steps. Tony joked that they had the only kid who was learning to walk from a dog.

Just before Christmas, Ziva came home from picking up Anthony from preschool and a white cat was sitting by the garage door. She looked carefully at the cat, who meowed pitifully. "Ima, can we keep her?" Beth and Rivka were right by Ziva's side looking at the cat. Beth held out a hand, and the cat rubbed into it. "See, she likes us!"

Ziva agreed to put the cat in the garage and see how she got along with Asher and Callie. When Tony came home, Ziva sent him a text to watch for the white cat in the garage when he came in. As Tony walked through the garage, the white cat jumped out at him. He bent down and petted her, and she followed him to the door to the house.

Tony opened the door, carefully trying to keep the white cat in the garage, but she scooted inside like a lightning bolt. Ziva saw a white streak run through the kitchen as Tony cried out, "Oh, crap! Cat got inside, Zi."

Ziva called the kids to come help find the white cat, not wanting a cat fight inside the house. Callie and Asher were lazing on one of the pet beds in the family room, and barely looked up as the family searched. "Here, kitty, kitty," Tony looked under furniture, behind the sofas, and in the offices.

"Here, kitty," Ziva looked inside the shelves in the playroom, thinking maybe the cat had hidden itself behind some toys or books. LJ followed his Ima, sometimes crawling, mostly walking in his own toddling gait. "Kee, gee."

"Tali, Anthony, Rivka, and Beth, please look in your rooms for the white cat," Ziva instructed her older four. "I do not want to have Callie and the cat get into a fight, if we can prevent it." The kids all went to their rooms to look for the escapee. Tony finished looking in the offices and laundry room. He went to the dining room and checked all of the chair seats. No cat, so he moved to the master bedroom.

Everyone met back in the hallway from the front door, and no one had seen the cat. "Where have we not looked?" Ziva started making a list of the rooms in the house.

"Playroom? I did not see the cat. Living room?"

Tali spoke up, "Not in the living room or in my room."

Ziva mentally checked off the two rooms, "Anthony's room?"

"No cat, Ima. I also checked the bathroom between my room and Tali's."

Two more checked off, as Ziva asked about the dining room. Tony spoke up, "I checked the dining room, both offices, the laundry room and the master bedroom and bath. No cat."

Rivka and Beth piped in, "Not in our room, LJ's room or the bathroom, Ima."

Tony scratched his head, "Did we ever look in the kitchen?"

"I think she ran through and did not stop," Ziva responded. "But, we should check just to be sure. Tali and Anthony, would you please look in the kitchen? Toda."

Tali and Anthony looked all around the kitchen, including the bar stools at the counter and the breakfast nook table and chairs. Still no cat. They returned to the rest of the family, "No cat in the kitchen, Ima."

Ziva and Tony had checked the coat rack by the front door, the shoe cubbies, and the bench inside the front entryway. Still no sign of the cat. "I feel as though we are missing something obvious," Ziva said to Tony. "Where have we not looked?"

Tony was about to respond when Rivka yelled from the family room, "Found her, Ima and Abba!" The rest of the family headed to the family room and looked where Rivka was pointing. Lying on the opposite side of Asher from Callie, the white cat was calming sitting with its legs tucked underneath, watching them. Asher looked to Ziva as if to say, "Why didn't you ask me where the cat was?"

Tony and Ziva laughed, and the kids moved over to the three animals. Callie rubbed on Anthony and then looked over at the newcomer, who was being petted by Beth and Rivka. She yawned and looked at Tony as if to tell him she didn't understand the big fuss.

"Well, I guess we have another cat," Tony laughed. "She chose us, and it seems Asher and Callie are okay with it." Beth grinned at her Abba; maybe the new cat would choose her to be its person.

"What should we name her?" Ziva asked the family.

"Lightning," Tony replied. "She ran like lightning into the house when given the chance."

"Snowball," suggested Anthony, "Because she is all white."

"I like Lightning," Beth stroked the cat's head and she purred. "I think she likes it, too. Good Lightning." The cat leaned into Beth's touch and purred loudly.

Tali and Rivka thought a bit and both decided that Lightning was a good name for the cat. Ziva slowly approached and picked Lightning up, checking to see if the cat was a male or female. "She's a girl cat, so she may need to be spayed. We will have to take her to the vet to get a checkup any way. We should also ask around the neighborhood to make sure she does not already have a home."

A week later, Lightning had a clean bill of health, and the DiNozzos learned that she had already been spayed. The vet checked for a microchip. Lightning had been chipped, but the chip had never been registered. Ziva went ahead and put the family information into the chip database and registered Lightning as their cat. No one in the neighborhood had seen the cat before it showed up at the DiNozzo house.

Lightning chose Beth as her person, and she often slept with Beth at night and if she wasn't with Callie and Asher during the day, she could usually be found curled up on Beth's bed. Rivka was her second person.

Tali and Ziva worked patiently with both cats and leash trained them within a few weeks. Ziva wasn't sure the leash training would be successful with Callie, but after fighting the leash for the first week, she decided she could tolerate the harness and leash to get a chance to ride in the car with Tony and the family. Asher and Callie both loved to go in the car with the entire family. Lightning tolerated the rides in the car, usually sitting in Beth's lap for the ride.

Around the twins' birthday, another calico cat started hanging around the deck. She followed Asher and Callie inside one cold afternoon and stayed. She chose Rivka as her person. Rivka named her Patches. The two calicos would often curl up together at Asher's side. Lightning would sleep nearby, usually curled into Asher. If the animals were not all in one room, Patches and Lightning would often be together on one of the beds in Rivka and Beth's room.

A ginger tabby male cat followed Tali home from the bus stop near the end of April. The ginger tabby chose Tali as her person. Tali named him Simba. Ziva was ready to put a stop to the animals coming into the house, and Tony agreed with her. They now had a greyhound, four cats and five children in the house. Only Anthony did not have a pet that claimed him. All of the pets liked Anthony, but they slept on or near one of the others in the house.

Anthony got his pet when neighbors had to give up their female border collie to move to Germany when the mother was assigned to duty at Ramstein Air Base. Anthony played with the two boys and when they told him that they had to give up their dog; Anthony ran home and asked his Ima if the DiNozzos could take the dog. He loved Daisy and she loved him. Ziva relented but made all of the family promise that they would not adopt any more pets.

All of the animals got along for the most part, with an occasional cat fight over a toy or a favorite sun spot. Asher often put an end to disagreements between the cats by putting himself between them. At first, Daisy tried to herd the cats, but she quickly learned that the cats did what they wanted, when they wanted. She gave up trying to herd them and was happy when one or more would play with her outside.

Ziva would often check on the animals during the day to find them all piled on one of the large dog beds sleeping in a pile of fur and paws. Both Asher and Daisy loved to go with her or Tony for walks in the evening or for a jog with Ziva. When the kids were out in the yard, the dogs were almost always out with them. Sometimes the cats went outside and sometimes they stayed in.

As the children got older and were off to school, Ziva became the main person for all of the animals on the days she worked at home. She would be working at her computer in her office or on her laptop in various places around the house or on the deck and all six animals would be close by. Asher and Daisy were often at her feet with at least one cat in her lap and another on the back of her chair. Lightning liked to perch on the top of the shelves next to Ziva's desk and watch everything. Callie was most often curled up with one of the dogs. Asher would lean on Ziva's legs and try to sleep. Ziva always got a laugh when every one of the pets would follow her to the half-bath in the hallway by the offices. She felt as though she had supervisors to use the bathroom!

~Pets~

Asher lived with the DiNozzos for a little over ten years; they had to make the sad decision to put him down when he developed cancer in his spleen. Daisy crossed the Rainbow Bridge about three months after Asher. She had been about four years old when the family adopted her and she had slowed down considerably as she aged. Patches crossed the Bridge a week before LJ's tenth birthday. She had succumbed to an aggressive feline cancer in her abdominal area. Callie lived to the ripe old age of eighteen or close to it. The family had figured she was about six to eight months old when she showed up at their house. Simba got into a fight with a new cat in the neighborhood who ventured into the DiNozzo backyard about eight years after he followed Tali home. The wounds never healed completely and he developed an infection that took his life. Lightning was the last to cross the Bridge after nearly twenty years in the DiNozzo house.


End file.
